The accumulation of ice on aircraft wings and other structural members in flight is a danger that is well known. As used herein, the term "structural members" is intended to refer to any aircraft surface susceptible to icing during flight, including wings, stabilizers, engine inlets, rotors, and so forth. Attempts have been made since the earliest days of flight to overcome the problem of ice accumulation. While a variety of techniques have been proposed for removing ice from aircraft during flight, these techniques have had various drawbacks that have stimulated continued research activities.
One approach that has been used is thermal deicing. In thermal deicing, the leading edges, that is, the portions of the aircraft that meet and break the airstream impinging on the aircraft, are heated to prevent the formation of ice or to loosen accumulated ice. The loosened ice is removed from the structural members by the airstream passing over the aircraft.
In one form of thermal deicing, heating is accomplished by placing an electrothermal de-icer, including heating elements, over the leading edges of the aircraft, or by incorporating the heating elements into the structural members of the aircraft. Electrical energy for each heating element is derived from a generating source driven by one or more of the aircraft engines or auxiliary power unit (APU). The electrical energy is intermittently or continuously supplied to provide heat sufficient to prevent the formation of ice or to loosen accumulating ice.
With some commonly employed thermal deicers, the heating elements are configured as ribbons, i.e. interconnected conductive segments, that are mounted on a flexible backing. The conductive segments are separated from each other by gaps, i.e. intersegmental gaps, and each ribbon is electrically energized by a pair of contact strips. When applied to a wing or other airfoil surface, the segments are arranged in strips or zones extending spanwise or chordwise of the aircraft wing or airfoil. One of these strips, known as a spanwise parting strip, is disposed along a spanwise axis which commonly coincides with a stagnation line that develops during flight in which icing is encountered. Other strips, known as chordwise parting strips, are disposed at the ends of the spanwise parting strip and are aligned along chordwise axes. Other zones, known as spanwise shedding zones, typically are positioned above and below the spanwise parting strip at a location intermediate the chordwise parting strips. Between adjacent zones, a gap, known as an interheater gap, exists.
One of the draw-backs of electrothermal deicers as thus described is that excessive heat is typically supplied and/or stored in the heating elements so that as ice present at leading edge surfaces becomes completely melted, a flow of water forms back over unheated surfaces, often resulting in renewed and uncontrollable ice formation. This condition is commonly known as runback and refreeze.
This drawback is avoided by heating the electrical resistance heaters in succession only for short periods, thereby melting only the adhesion layer between the ice and the aircraft surface so that the ice pieces are removed by aerodynamic forces occurring during flight.
A deicing system operating in this manner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,476, issued to Volkner et al. In this patent, two groups of deicer heating elements are provided in an aircraft, one group being energized continuously when the deicer is operating, and the other group being energized periodically for short periods of time by a pulse generator. A temperature transducer is mounted adjacent to one of the continuously energized heating elements, and the time period during which the periodically energized heating elements are energized is varied in accordance with the output of the temperature transducer to thereby regulate the temperature of the heating elements in accordance with environmental conditions and to prevent the heating elements from becoming overheated. This is done by energizing the periodically energized heating elements in sequence at predetermined fixed times with a first pulse generator, and de-energizing the heating elements with a second pulse generator which is coupled to the temperature transducer and which varies the time of de-energization in accordance with the output of that transducer.
Another deicing system operating in accordance with these principals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,457 to Volkner et al. which discloses a plurality of electrical resistance heaters which are sequentially operated, the duration of the heating periods in dependence on the temperature at the resistance heaters, and the duration of the non-heating periods being dependant on the water content of the atmosphere surrounding the aircraft.
The Volkner patents describe expensive and complicated systems. An improved thermal deicer which minimizes runback and refreeze without increasing complexity is therefore highly desirable.